The present invention relates to a system, in which a broadcasting program is offered on a pay basis in satellite television broadcasting, cable television broadcasting, or in terrestrial television broadcasting service via broadcasting satellite (BS) or communication satellite (CS).
In the information-oriented society of today, satellite television broadcasting via broadcasting satellite (BS) or communication satellite (CS), as well as cable television broadcasting, called CATV (cable television), using coaxial cable or optical fiber cable, are increasingly propagated.
Also, multiplex teletext broadcasting for separately transmitting character information via television wave is also being propagated.
In some of these satellite television broadcasting systems, unlike conventional type terrestrial television broadcasting, to which anybody is entitled to have access, a scrambled television program is transmitted so that only the subscribed viewers who signed the viewing contract can view the program, and the subscribed viewers receive the program on a pay basis using a tuner/decoder, which can descramble the program.
In order to view the program on such pay satellite television broadcasting, it is necessary to use a special-purpose tuner/decoder. The tuner/decoder is provided with an ID code, which is transmitted regularly (e.g. once monthly) from a satellite, and only the tuner/decoder receiving the transmitted ID code can descramble the program.
The procedure to select and transmit ID for a viewer who signed a viewing contract is very troublesome, and an ID code is not transmitted unless the contract is signed in advance. Even when the viewer wants to view a pay-per-view program, there is no method of contracting for pay-per-program on occasion, and thus, the viewer cannot view the program upon request.
Because the tuner/decoder is provided with ID which corresponds to each transmitting station, as many tuner/decoders as the number of transmitting stations are needed to view programs of many pay satellite television stations.
In CATV, which can transmit several tens of channels at the same time, special channels for broadcasting motion pictures, sports programs, music programs, etc. are broadcast in addition to general channels, which are not scrambled and can be viewed under a comprehensive contract. The programs of such special television channels are transmitted as scrambled pay television channels. To view the programs in the scrambled channels, it is necessary to sign a contract for descrambling. Because the contract period is normally renewed in approximately one month intervals, it is not possible to view the programs under a contract signed at any desired time.
In order to have access to a live sports program, motion picture program or music program to be broadcast through the scrambled satellite television broadcasting or CATV channels, there is a special system in which a viewing time recorder is installed on each television set, and the fee is to be paid by deferred payment based on the actually viewed programs. However, much labor is required for the control and fee collection for such system.
When a television viewer receives programs from terrestrial or satellite television broadcasting and secondarily distributes them to a number of display devices, general television viewers may have to pay for some of the programs due to copyright even though the programs are offered free of charge from the original broadcasting station.
In this way, if the viewer wants to distribute the program from terrestrial or satellite television broadcasting on a pay basis, there is no means to contract for individual programs as in the cases of viewing satellite television broadcasting or CATV programs, and each viewer must sign a subscription contract for each channel for the distribution.
To solve the above problems, the present inventors have filed Japanese Patent Application No. 4-199942, which discloses a charging system, whereby a charging center sends a viewing permit code for viewing a pay program to a data communication device in response to a request for viewing the pay program and a request for distribution of a broadcasting program, which are executed from a pay-per-program viewer via a public telephone line using a data communication device. The charging center also collects a fee for such program, and a receiving device displays a pay program according to the viewing permit code when it accepts the viewing permit code.
In the following, description will be given on the above invention.
FIG. 1 shows a television charging system of the present invention. The television charging system comprises a satellite television broadcasting system 1, a CATV system 2, a multiplex teletext broadcasting system 3 using terrestrial television broadcasting, and a charging system 4.
In the satellite television broadcasting system 1 using BS or CS, reference numeral 11 represents a terrestrial station of satellite television broadcasting, and television wave including a program code and a scrambled television signal is transmitted from a satellite communication transmitting antenna 12 to a geostationary satellite 13 on a geostationary orbit about 30,000 km above the equator.
When the television wave from satellite communication transmitting antenna 12 is received, the geostationary satellite 13 amplifies the received television wave, converts it to a frequency on the order of 10 GHz, and transmits it to the ground.
The viewer receives the television wave of 10 GHz from the geostationary satellite 13 by a satellite television broadcasting receiving antenna 14, and the wave is converted to a frequency on the order of 1 GHz and is sent to a satellite television broadcasting receiving tuner/decoder 15. The satellite broadcasting receiving tuner/decoder 15 picks up a video signal and an audio signal from the television wave, sends them directly as video and audio signals to a television set or converts them again to a frequency receivable by the television set.
This satellite broadcasting system itself is the same as a conventional system, while, in this satellite television broadcasting, the program is scrambled, and only the viewers having the viewing permit code for descrambling the program can view the television program.
In CATV system 2, reference numeral 21 represents a CATV broadcasting center, 22 represents a coaxial cable or an optical fiber cable for transmitting TV signal, and 23 represents a CATV adapter/decoder. CATV adapter/decoder 23 picks up a video signal and an audio signal from a CATV signal and descrambles them by a decode signal. Further, the signals are sent directly as video and audio signals to the television set or by converting them to a frequency receivable by the television set.
In the multiplex teletext broadcasting system 3, reference numeral 31 is a terrestrial multiplex teletext broadcasting station for transmitting a television signal with multiplex teletext on a television wave program as terrestrial television wave from a television transmitting antenna 32. The transmitted terrestrial television wave is received by a television wave receiving antenna 33, and multiplex teletext signal is picked up from the television signal by a multiplex teletext adapter 34. The signal is distributed to display devices 35, 35, 35, . . . such as a video monitor, LED (light emitting diode) display device, LCD (liquid crystal device) display unit, display-phone, personal computer display unit, etc.
On the other hand, the charging system 4 comprises a charging center 41, a public telephone line 42 and a data communication device 43.
In this charging system 4, the pay-per-viewer makes a request for viewing to the charging center 41 through the public telephone line 42 by the data communication device 43 such as display-phone.
Upon receipt of the request from the pay-per-viewer, a viewing permit code for viewing a pay program is sent from the charging center 41 to the data communication device 43.
The viewing permit code sent to the data communication device 43 is sent to a satellite broadcasting tuner/decoder 15, a CATV adapter/decoder 23 or a multiplex teletext adapter 34 on-line via a parallel data line, a serial data line of RS-232C standard, or an ordinary public telephone line using a modem, or off-line via a semiconductor memory unit, such as IC card, memory card, etc., or a magnetic memory unit such as a magnetic card, magnetic disk, etc.
Upon receipt of the viewing permit code, the satellite broadcasting tuner/decoder 15, CATV adapter/decoder 23 or multiplex teletext adapter 34 descrambles the program, to which an identifying information corresponding to the viewer permit code had been given, and a television signal is sent to a television set 16 or 24 or teletext signal is sent to display devices 35, 35, 35, . . . . Thus, the viewable picture is displayed on the television set 16 or 24, and the character signal is displayed on the display devices 35, 35, 35, . . . .
On the other hand, the information of a fee for each pay program and the viewing permit code for each pay program are sent in advance from the satellite broadcasting terrestrial station 11, the CATV center 21 or the terrestrial wave broadcasting station 31 to the charging center 41. The charging center 41 collects the fee from the viewers who request for viewing on behalf of the satellite broadcasting terrestrial station 11, the CATV center 21 or the terrestrial wave broadcasting station 31.
The charging center and the communication device are connected by public telephone line, and account is settled via the public telephone line.
As the charging system, various methods can be utilized such as a method to use a fee collecting system included in the public telephone line system, a method to use a home banking system by banks, a method to use a mail sales system in credit system, or a VAN system.
In order that only the viewers who paid the fee can view the broadcasting program and the others cannot view it, the broadcasting program is scrambled. Various methods have been proposed for the scrambling, and typical methods include a line permutation system and a line rotation system for the video signal and a PN signal adding system for the audio signal.
Description will be given below on the information to be transmitted and received in this system, referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. Shown in these figures is the information to be transmitted and received in this system, and each information is transmitted and received between broadcasting stations such as BS, CS, CATV, etc., receiving devices with tuner and decoder, charging centers, and data communication devices such as display phones, modem, etc. The broadcasting station and the receiving device are connected by radio wave or cable, and the charging center and the data communication device are connected by public telephone line. The broadcasting station and the charging center, and further, the receiving device and the data communication device are coupled directly, or by on-line communication means such as radio wave or cable, or by off-line means such as magnetic card, magnetic disk or memory card.
FIG. 2 shows a system for viewing a pay broadcasting program. The broadcasting station sends a viewing permit code for viewing a broadcasting program to a charging center before the program is broadcast, and also sends scrambled broadcasting program, which can be descrambled by the viewing permit code, to the receiving device. In this case, a program number for identifying the broadcasting program can be transmitted with the broadcasting program.
When the viewer makes a request for viewing a television program to the charging center via a public telephone line using the data communication device, the charging center sends the viewing permit code, which has been sent from the broadcasting station before the program is broadcast, to the data communication device. The viewing permit code sent to the data communication device is sent to the receiving device. The program is descrambled according to the viewing permit code by the receiving device when the desired broadcasting program is broadcast, and the desired program is displayed or recorded when the receiving device outputs the program to a television set (TV) or to a video tape recorder (VTR).
FIG. 3 represents a system to distribute a program such as multiplex teletext broadcasting program. In this broadcasting distribution system, the broadcasting station sends a distribution permit code for distributing a broadcasting program and a program number for identifying the broadcasting program to a charging center before the program is broadcast, and the program, such as multiplex teletext broadcasting program, which can be distributed according to the distribution permit code, to the receiving device together with the program number.
When a viewer, who wants to distribute a program, requests the distribution to the charging center via public telephone line, the charging center sends a distribution permit code and a program number, which have been sent from the broadcasting station before the program is broadcast, to the data communication device. The distribution permit code and the program number sent to the data communication device are sent to the receiving device when the requested program is broadcast, and the receiving device distributes the program to the display unit (DSP) according to the distribution permit code.